Why The Hate?

I watch Bill Mahr.  If you don't because you don't have the opportunity, I'm sorry you can't afford HBO.  If you don't watch because you don't like the show or the man, I'm sorry for you.  But sometimes, Bill pisses me off.

I'm fat.  Obese, really.  It's a problem I've lived with my entire life; one of my earliest memories of extended family was a remark by an uncle: "He's a fat thing, ain't he?"  He was one of those fellows who believed that being overweight indicated a mental flaw or weakness, and that somehow pointing it out over and over would help.  How many of you do that?  "Oh, dear, just eat less," or "Look at me, just a few minutes at the gym every day," or one of my favorites, "it's all a matter of willpower."

So Bill announced a bit of news I'd already been following.  Certain cells in the stomach, it has been discovered, help control hunger by directly controlling certain brain 'switches.'  Chronically obese folks are often plagued by hunger even though they've had enough to eat, regarded by non-obese people as weakness of character.  Turns out this hunger is sometimes caused by false signals from the stomach cells to the brain - and that hunger is very real.

So Bill announced that scientists were testing a pill to help the obese lose weight and then jokingly criticised the need, asking why lazy Americans needed a pill to cure everything, particularly a condition for which all anyone has to do is eat less or exercise more.  Which kinda pissed me off, more so when the crowd applauded and laughed.

Obesity - real, chronic obesity - is far more complex than most people think.  Half-a-dozen systems control hunger and satiety, like the  stomach cells I mentioned above (if I get a few +1s on this post, I'll put together more of what I've learned in a future post).  If just one of these systems is out of whack, weight becomes a problem; more, and you're in for a lifetime of denigration and ridicule.

I've put up with my obesity and people's opinions about it my whole life.  I'm not the only one; almost everyone either shares this problem, or shares their hating.  Imagine a pill that could help an obese person take back control, lose weight, and live a better life.  Why in the heck would that be lazy?  Why would that be ridiculed?  Why the hate?